Is it time to de-sex Halloween?

Halloween is no longer the innocent door-to-door costume parade a lot of us remember.

In our neighborhood, up until about 8 p.m., we get the grade school princesses and pirates with their pillowcases or their UNICEF cartons. But after 8 p.m., it’s all about survivors of car wrecks, losing contestants from Project Runway, and some people who frankly look a little too old to be going door-to-door at that hour, unless they’re serving subpoenas.

And the most shocking costumes, of course, are worn by the teenage girls.

There have been a bunch of op-eds lamenting that so many girls have taken Halloween to the wrong side of the magazine rack. Among the critics, Michelle Manchir of the Chicago Tribune.

“It’s becoming a parody of itself because you can now be a sexy hot dog or a sexy George Washington,” Manchir said.

Anything to scare off the redcoats.

But there is an alternative: A Kickstarter site called Take Back Halloween raised over $10,000 this year to provide free designs for costumes that empower young women.

Costumes include Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Queen of England and France; Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia; Bessie Coleman, the first black female pilot; Maria Makiling, a forest fairy of the Philippines; Empress Theodora, Empress of Byzantium.

Now honestly, doesn’t that sound like a lot more fun than going to Freak Night dressed like a pizza?

The costumes are gorgeous, they teach your daughter about the great women of history, and thanks to the layers of heavy fabric, twerking becomes very difficult…for all but the most exceptional athletes.